


Long Way Down

by Vagrant_Blvrd



Series: Kings of Nowhere [37]
Category: Rooster Teeth/Achievement Hunter RPF
Genre: Alternate Universe- GTA V, Fake AH Crew, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-06
Updated: 2018-10-06
Packaged: 2019-07-27 07:27:13
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,103
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16214306
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Vagrant_Blvrd/pseuds/Vagrant_Blvrd
Summary: Ryan supposes it was just a matter of time before Gavin found out Ryan’s been lying to him about what he does for a living. (Gavin is many things, but stupid isn’t one of them.)





	Long Way Down

**Author's Note:**

> Prompt fill for Anon who asked for Freewood with this prompt: 143: “ Just how stupid do you think I am? ”

Ryan supposes it was just a matter of time before Gavin found out Ryan’s been lying to him about what he does for a living. (Gavin is many things, but stupid isn’t one of them.)

He’d just hoped he’d have more time before things fell apart, as though Ryan’s ever done anything to deserve something like that.

Still.

“What the bloody Christ is this?” Gavin asks, staring down at the mask in his hands.

Commissioned from an armorer who owed Ryan a favor. One of his “special blends” and a damn sight better than the cheap rubber thing Ryan had picked up at the shop in Vespucci years ago. 

Heavier than it looks and lighter than it should be, but you wouldn’t think it to look at the way Gavin’s holding it, because it’s pretty clear what it isn’t.

Not some novelty mask like the ones you can get just about anywhere in Los Santos these days. Just like those poor copies of Jack’s horrific Hawaiian shirts and fake mustaches and crude renditions of the wolf on Michael’s back.

The sales Ammu-Nation still runs sometimes on their hot pink sniper rifles even though it's been a while since Ray worked in Los Santos . The unfortunate rise in popularity of cowboy hats and other lamentable sartorial choices. 

(The world loves a hero, but Los Santos is a special kind of place where the normal rules don’t apply.)

“A mask? Ryan tries, ignoring the way his ribs ache, and the dull throb in his arm from a knife wound hastily bandaged. A million other aches drowned out by the one in his chest at the way Gavin’s staring at his mask.

He wasn’t supposed to come home this early, told Ryan he’d be stuck in meetings all day because of a big project and God, so much fun Ryan! _Loads_.

Gavin looks up at him, expression unreadable.

“’A mask’,” he repeats, like he can’t believe Ryan is this stupid, and yet somehow here they are. “A mask, is it?”

Ryan’s seen Gavin upset before. A fuckup at work or something closer to home. The way the world is sometimes, fucked up and horrible and always feeling so small in the face of it before Gavin gets his feet back under him and keeps going because he doesn’t know any other way.

But this - 

He’s never seen _this_.

“ Just how stupid do you think I am? ”

“Is that a trick question?” Ryan asks, because he’s an idiot. 

Well, the blood loss may have something to do with it too, but but mainly the idiot thing.

Gavin stares at him, and Ryan looks back helplessly because he doesn’t know what to say here. He’s never been in this kind of situation before. (Never thought he’d be in the kind of place where he’d have to worry about it, but then Gavin had happened and everything snowballed from there.)

“You - “ Gavin starts, and oh, good, there’s a hint of what he’s thinking because Gavin sounds decidedly _not happy_ \- and then he blinks, eyes dropping to Ryan’s arm and slow drip, drip, drip of blood. “You’re bleeding.”

He is, what with the whole disaster of a job earlier. 

The asshole Geoff had sent him to kill nice and dead, but more capable than either of them expected him to be. Leading Ryan on a merry little chase before he’d gotten the upper hand, bullet in the asshole’s head and new scars in the making to add to Ryan’s collection.

Gone home to patch himself up instead of heading to the clinics the Fakes helped fund in exchange for their discretion when the police and other busybodies came around. (Small enough favor for helping them stay open, and in Los Santos every favor you can grab for yourself can lead to a bigger payoff than you ever expected.)

Hurting and wanting nothing more than to be somewhere safe, familiar, _comforting_ , after a bad day. Making the mistake of thinking he had time to clean everything up before Gavin got home, and being unbelievably wrong about that one. 

“Yeah,” Ryan says, waiting for the other shoe to drop, for Gavin to do something about all of... _this_. “Knife wounds do that.”

Gavin swallows, hands tightening on the edges of the mask before he sighs, anger draining out of him. 

“I wouldn't know,” he says, setting Ryan’s mask down on the edge of the coffee table.

Ryan watches as he lifts the lid of the medical kit Ryan brought out earlier.

Gavin’s not quite looking at Ryan as he sorts through it, this little frown between his eyes.

“Well,” he says, something so very tired to his words. “I guess this explains why you insisted on this thing, doesn’t it.”

Gavin had just shaken his head when Ryan told him he was the worst kind of klutz back then, this fond smile on his face at Ryan’s sheepish shrug. Taken him at his word even as he fussed over Ryan’s splinted fingers. (Broken in the midst of a heist instead of whatever lie he’d come up with at the time.)

“Gavin - “

“I don’t - ” Gavin says, and laughs,this shaky thing that sounds on the edge of breaking as he looks up at Ryan, eyes flitting to his arm when he can’t seem to hold Ryan’s gaze for long. “I don’t know what to do.”

Neither does Ryan, in the grander scheme of things. On a smaller scale, though - 

“I can walk you through it,” Ryan offers.

This first, and the rest later, if Gavin wants to hear it.

Gavin looks at him, searching his face. 

For what, Ryan doesn’t know. Just looks back steadily, because he deserves that much, and Ryan’s tired of lying to him, even it costs. (Everything does, that’s how the world works.)

“Okay,” Gavin says finally, wry twist to his mouth. “I can do that much.”

Ryan sits down on the couch next to him, slow, careful, because Gavin is still here after everything. Is allowing Ryan the opportunity to explain, if nothing else.

“Alright,” Ryan says, pulling the supplies they’ll need out of the kit and explaining to Gavin what they’re for as he does. 

Gavin listens intently, pushing aside his own feelings to deal with the matter at hand.

Ryan breathes a little easier when Gavin helps Ryan take his jacket off, pull the sleeve of his shirt up because he’s still here after everything. Willing to listen to whatever Ryan has to say – give him the chance he isn’t sure he’s earned. (Thinks maybe, maybe, he can salvage the life he’s made with Gavin here.)


End file.
